Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to databases and more specifically to use of email (electronic mail) to update records stored in a database server.
Related Art
A database server permits data to be stored, accessed and modified in the form of structured queries. Structured Query Language (SQL) provides one convention for such queries when a database server stores the data in the form of relational tables. The database server may be viewed as storing records, with each record potentially spanning multiple tables or only a single table.
There is often a need to update records stored in a database. Updating entails changing the value of at least a part of the data constituting the record. For example, if a record represents the data in a row of a table having multiple columns, updating entails storing new values (replacing previous values, if any) in one or more columns of such a row.
Email (electronic mail) offers a convenient communication facility over networks. Typically, a message is composed by a sender and sent to a recipient identified by an email address. The email message is delivered to an email server identified based on the email address of the recipient, and accessed by the recipient from the email server.
At least in view of the widespread availability of email, it may be desirable to facilitate updates to records stored in a database server by email.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.